October 18, 2007

Thirteen days until T-Day (Transplant Day). Last night our friend Tom came over and we talked about the cellular make-up of the body, and about how each cell has a particular intelligence all its own. We tend to think that the mind is located in the brain, but is it? Is there awareness outside the brain? Is the individual's sense of himself or herself active in each cell and in other parts of the body? When my kidney is in Jim's body, what will it be like for him? Should I instruct my kidney now to be nice and to behave itself?

Then last night I had a dream. I dreamt that I looked in the mirror, and I had a white beard! Was it me? Was it Jim? Were the borders suddenly less clear?

We were told by staff in the Alkmaar and the Amsterdam hospitals that the success rate for kidney donations between partners is amazingly high -- amazingly because the partners are never blood relatives. Is it because the cells of the two bodies understand each other so well? That they've learned to listen to each other?

[Double-click on the kidney poster to enlarge.]